City Council

27 WEST ALLEN STREET WINOOSKI, VERMONT 05404 (802) 655-6410 CITY OF WINOOSKI (802) 655-6414 (fax) JESSIE BAKER CITY MANAGER MAYOR SETH LEONARD COUNCILOR ERIC COVEY sleonard@winooskivt.org DEPUTY MAYOR BRIAN CORRIGAN CITY COUNCIL COUNCILOR NICOLE MACE COUNCILOR BRIAN SWEENEY bcorrigan@winooskivt.org Agenda Tuesday, January 16, 2018 6:00 P.M. CLAIRE BURKE COUNCIL CHAMBER I. Call to Order II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Agenda Review IV. Public Comment V. Consent Agenda a. Approval: City Council Minutes of January 8, 2018 b. Approval: Warrants for Accounts Payable as of January 12, 2018; Subsequent to Payout November c. Approval: Headworks Project: State Revolving Fund Loan Agreement for Preliminary Engineering VI. City Update VII. Council Reports VIII. Regular Items a. Approval: Main Street Revitalization Project: Approval of the Preferred Alternative recommendation from the Planning Commission – P Dreher b. Approval: Main Street Revitalization Project: Approval of Agreement with CCRPC to support Scoping and Preliminary Design – J Baker c. Approval: Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission FY19 Unified Planning Work Program Requests for Funding – J Baker d. Discussion: FY19 Budget: Public Safety – J Audy & R Hebert e. Approval: Chittenden County Public Safety Authority: Union Municipal District Agreement and Resolution – J Baker f. Approval: 21C Grant Application with the Winooski School District – R Coffey g. Discussion: Treasurer Discussion – S Leonard h. Discussion: Job Description: Accounting Clerk – J Baker IX. Adjourn MINUTES The Mayor called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Deputy Mayor Brian Corrigan. Members Present: Mayor Seth Leonard Councilors: Brian Corrigan, Eric Covey, Nicole Mace, Brian Sweeney Officers Present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; Carol Barrett, City Clerk; Angela Aldieri, Staff Accountant; Heather Carrington, Community and Economic Development Director: Ray Coffey, Community Services Director; Richard January 16, 2018 Winooski City Council  Hebert, Police Chief; John Audy, Fire Chief; Paul Dreher, Zoning Administrator; Kirstie Paschal, Thrive Director; Eliah Ferree, Community Justice Director. Others Present: Deborah B. Ragione, Maura O’Neill, Terry Zigmund, Michelle McCutcheon-Schour, Michael Rosenberg, Public Safety Commission; Meghan Burns, Nathaniel Burns. III. Agenda Review - None IV. Public Comment – None V. Consent Agenda MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Covey to approve the minutes of January 8, 2018 as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. MOTION by Councilor Corrigan seconded by Councilor Mace to approve the Warrants for Accounts Payable as of January 12, 2018, Subsequent to Payout November and the Headworks Project State Revolving Fund Loan Agreement for Preliminary Engineering as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. VI. City Update The City Manager gave the following update; *Martin Luther King Jr Day of Service – Thank you to all who came out yesterday for a day of service in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. A special thanks to Aphaia, Paul, and the Community Services crew for their efforts. *70 Main St. – burst pipe led to a significant outpouring of water from the building. Public Works was able to isolate the water to the building and disconnect it. We are evaluating the cost to the City. *65 Barlow Street – A fire in a 3rd floor unit was mostly put out by two sprinkler heads. Teams quickly responded to secure the building and mitigating the water impact on the building. Eight units were displaced. No one was hurt. Thanks to Colchester/St. Mikes, VTANG, the Red Cross, and the staff at the Winooski Housing Authority for their assistance. *FireHouse personnel is in the City this week. Optimizing the data going into the system and our ability to pull it out. VII. Council Reports Councilor Covey said we will likely hear from the commission members in regards of the budget. Councilor Sweeney – None Mayor Leonard said the Planning Commission is very busy and we are moving forward in the Planning process. Councilor Corrigan – None Councilor Mace – said she is reaching out to the pool committee to insure everyone is on the same page. I’m offering my support and Councilor Covey support. VIII. Regular Items a. Approval: Main Street Revitalization Project: Approval of the Preferred Alternative recommendation from the Planning Commission Mr. Dreher presented background information regarding the Main Street Revitalization Project. He said on January 10, 2018, at the Preferred Options Meeting, the Main Street Revitalization Project engineering consultant (VHB) presented to the Planning Commission and Public Works Commission two (2) alternatives for the Main Street Revitalization Project – referred to as “Alternative 1” and “Alternative 2”. January 16, 2018 Winooski City Council  At the conclusion of the public meeting, the Planning Commission unanimously approved a motion recommending that the City Council accept and approve “Alternative 1” as the “preferred option”. The motion to approve included the consideration of Weaver Street bicycle facilities, enhanced connectivity between Weaver/Main Streets and that additional bicycle accommodation are provided on Main Street (excluding dedicated protected lane.) See attached. Mr. Dreher explained Alternative 1, generous wide sidewalks, parking isles, narrow down travel lanes and on both sides, two 6-foot tree belt for trees. Alternative II had slightly more narrow sidewalks, narrow tree belts and a dedicated bike facility on Main St. There was vigorous debate over the course of the evening. The Planning Commission and the Public Works Commission went into their own deliberation session, the Public Works Commission recommended to the Planning Commission to accept Alternative 1, the one without the dedicated bike facility, and they voted that night unanimously to support Alternative 1 and to move it on to you for your support. He said this does promote the bike facility on Weaver St. Which is part of the transportation master plan and form base code, visioning documents. The Planning Commission recommended additional support for bike infrastructure meaning, for soft infrastructure, sharrows, and that sort of stuff be layered into the Main St portion of the proposal so that Main St becomes more bike friendly while not having its own dedicated facility to bike infrastructure. The Mayor said the bike facility was the big conversation. Are there any other differences that we should point out in the two alternatives? Mr. Dreher said while it is still in the design state, the one alternative without the bike facility has a round a bout at Main and Spring Streets. The bike facility alternative would not allow for that or if it did allow for that, we would have to acquire land from adjoining property owners. The Landscape Architect from VHB commented that trees would tend to have a better life span and grow taller in the wider tree belt. These are of the big differences. The dedicated bike facility does not allow for parking on that side of the street where the facility would be located and it also prevents bus usage on that side of the street because the bus cannot pull off into where the parking isle would. There was lengthy discussion concerning the bike facility and the tree scape. The importance of the tree landscape, cuts down on rain, absorbs car fumes, sun-shading impacts café seating and hard figures on the benefit of real estate. Mr. Nate Burns, Winooski homeowner. I both drive and bike and I feel that the alternative II with bike lane is somewhat haphazardly created. He said somebody asked why we could not have bike lanes on the East Side vs. the West Side. There was not a good answer. I asked why we couldn’t have an 8 ft. wide bike lane instead of a 10 ft. with a three foot buffer and they said in Vermont an 8 ft. buffers is acceptable. Why didn’t they think of putting an 8 ft. in and could have solved some of the problems that they were discussing such as not enough room for street lighting in the areas. I’m also curious why there wasn’t an alternative III and I don’t know if that is what they were instructed to do two options. There could have been an option of a downhill sharrow and an uphill bike lane. He feels like the second option was an afterthought. If Alternative 1 wins bike lanes on Weaver St. I hope they are not a false promise. I want to thank everybody involved with this, people who aren’t paid, people who work for the city and the engineers. I do appreciate their time and effort. The Mayor asked from an alternative standpoint, what was the focus on providing two different alternatives? Mr. Dreher said that was the direction given by me based on input from an earlier meeting at the local concerns meeting, where we heard two things; Alternative 1 and the other was a dedicated bike facility on Main St. We did not hear input on another alternative. I will take full credit that I directed the engineers to look at two alternatives. Councilor Covey asked what the next steps are and at what level does that lock us into. The Mayor said we spent a significant amount of time planning, taking public feedback and some of these projects with timelines now have the opportunity to go. The City Manager said you are in a hard position tonight because it is a very big decision. The only thing I would add that this has been a community process over the years through the form base code discussions and master planning conversations. It’s also been conversations on January 16, 2018 Winooski City Council  many of the last Planning Commission and Public Works Commission agenda’s. While it feels challenging, it is not necessary for your group to be having discussions, they are your representatives to those discussions. I thought there was a wonderful discussion between Public Works Commission and the Planning Commission to get to this recommendation to you last Wednesday night. As we move forward with new council assignments to commission in March, through the master planning process thinking about how we want to task the commissions with doing work. I think these are important value conversations to keep in mind. Councilor Mace appreciates the Public Works Commission and the Planning Commission who did so much work to get us here. I feel it is our obligation to respect the process that we created. MOTION by Councilor Sweeney seconded by Councilor Corrigan to accept and approve the Planning recommendation of “Alternative 1” as the preferred option for the Main Street Revitalization Project as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. b. Approval: Main Street Revitalization Project: Approval of Agreement with CCRPC to support Scoping and Preliminary Design The City Manager said CCRPC was able to identify Federal funds to assist the City with the scoping and preliminary design portion for the Main Street Revitalization Project. These funds will be used to cover portions of the costs not otherwise funded by USDA and the State Revolving Loan Funds. The funds are for $50,000.00 and we have a portion to pay 20%, which our match is $10,000.00. We will use FY18 CIP Street Reconstruction dollars to fund this match. MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Covey to approve the Agreement with CCRPC to support the scoping and preliminary design as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. c. Approval: Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission FY 19 Unified Planning Work Program Requests for Funding The City Manager said that each year the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) solicits requests for transportation and planning related projects for their Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP). The City is proposing the following projects aligned to the Strategic Vision and priority projects. Weaver Street Bike Facility Improvements Transportation Impact Fee Study East Allen Street Scoping Study Municipal Plan Mapping and Drafting Support Updated Traffic Counts Update Pavement Condition Index MOTION by Councilor Corrigan seconded by Councilor Mace to approve the City’s application for up to the six projects as presented for CCRPC’s FY19 Unified Planning Work Program as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. The Mayor called for a three-minute recess at 7:15 p.m. and reconvened meeting at 7:18 p.m. d. Discussion: FY19 Budget: Public Safety Fire Chief Audy presented the FY19 Budget – Public Safety “Fire Dept” Organizational Chart – Has some recent changes which includes Fire, Fire Marshal & Code Enforcement Fire FY17 Key Outcomes – See attached. Fire Strategic Vision – FY18 Accomplishments – See attached. Fire FY19 Strategic Vision FY19 Goals See attached. Fire: Budgetary Changes – FY18 to FY19 – See attached The City Manager said the plan is because we have not been building up CIP reserves to fund a truck for several years. This is an emergent need for a new apparatus. We are recommending that we use the leasing January 16, 2018 Winooski City Council  model the City has used under other significant big purchases through Public Works the last couple of years dedicate very significant portion of this year’s CIP Funding to a down payment on a truck paired with a request for $100,000.00 from FY17 fund balance. Essentially pay for halve the truck now and lease it for 12 years which would be that lease payment till the end of the term at which point we would own a 12 year old truck rather than purchasing a used truck. You will hear about it more next week that is the general concept. Rental Registry: See attached. Chief Audy said if we are successful with the new truck, we will reduce the equipment maintenance by $10,000.00. What we want to get away from and what you see when you have old equipment is we tend to budget for catastrophic failures. As we have surplus funds, sometimes that is where it comes from. Regulation & Code General Fund: The one line item that stood out for me was the Contract and Professional Services. It is down quite a bit and it’s zoning coming out. FY18, it was about $100,000.00 and it is down to $31,800.00. We were carrying that for zoning so we could do a contract. Now, that we have hired a Zoning Administrator it has come out and going into that Departments budget. This $31,800.00 accounts for our ongoing contract with Complus, which is our parking software. Rental Registry Budget – See attached. Chief Audy said there is a small increase in revenues. Other units will be coming on board. Expense line item is rolled up and one that stood out is the miscellaneous which includes the general fund transfer that we usually anticipate and salary contingency I that line item. Emerging Issues: See attached. Equipment Ladder truck – I immediately would like to start the Planning process. I am not worried about the age of the aerial at this time. When you spec piece of equipment like this, it will take us a couple, three years to plan. He would like to see the staff at 20 employees The Mayor asked John to differentiate the difference between the trucks. Chief. Audy said a pumper truck is usually the first truck out of the firehouse. It carry’s from 6 to 8 people, it has a large pump that connects to the fire hydrant. It is a workhorse and it usually has a 30-year life span. The aerial is a ladder truck in our with a 75’ platform. The Mayor also stated the equipment helps the ratings of the ISO in terms of people paying their homeowners insurance. Police Chief Hebert presented the FY19 Budget – Public Safety “Police Dept” Mr. Hebert said the Organizational chart has been static for the last 3 ½ years. This is going to be an important year for the Police Dept. We have some unexpected changes within the Police Dept., obviously we lost Michael Cram in December, Lt. McGivern is retiring June 1 and Sgt. Wood is retiring January 28, 2018. I would like to consider this an opportunity, than challenges. I think we have an excellent staff down stairs and we will be able to make a transition. FY17 Key Outcomes: See attached Domestic Violence - James Learned due to staffing issues, had to pull him back CUSI – James Charkalis, due to staffing issues, had to pull him back FY18 Accomplishments – See attached. Strategic Vision FY19 Goals – See attached Budgetary Changes FY18 to FY19 – See attached Chief Hebert said Jessie, John and I have been working on a Grand Juror as we speak. My initial request was to eliminate the Community Justice Center match which is $13752.00 item in the Police Dept.th is the Reportative Board Manager, she does what Patty Niquette use to do. The reason that it should be in the Police Budget, is if the grant money went away, we would still have Reportative Process in the City of Winooski so that we don’t have to depend on the states grant funding. Therefore I’ve asked to put that back in . We are going to reduce part-time staff hours, obviously we are hoping with an extra body here 40 hours for a week that we can reduce our part-time staffing needs. . The part-time line item will offset that cost. January 16, 2018 Winooski City Council  Level Funded Police OT – We didn’t add the cost of living increases and maintain that cost. We removed the plan to install cameras in the Police Vehicles $2000.00. We are investing in Community Outreach Team Partnership with the Howard Center. This will involve 4 full-time social mental health workers that are going to be available to 6 communities. This is a great resource we have. They will be in each Police Dept. and have office space, computer and phone to use. For 12,300.00 investment, you couldn’t even higher a ¼ person for that. By joining forces, and sharing money and expense we are going to get this great resource. General Fund – See attached. Emerging Issues – See attached Chief said it is not sustainable with 16 people. The changes I was eluding to earlier is that we are going to remove the CUSI Detective and bring him back and we already ended the Domestic Violence Investigator. That will be a uniform position. We are trying to recruit employees; you have to have something that makes us look attractive, and be an attractive place to work. Chief Hebert said the Union came to him and asked if we could have a K-9 Unit. We would talk about it and I figured out a way that it would be zero cost to the taxpayer. We could use asset forfeiture to start it up and continue to pay for the program. I’m just putting it out there, it’s an opportunity we could have. I’m looking to have a daytime detective to cover vacation/sick and to also backfill uniform as need. I’m still trying to create opportunities but try an improve staffing within the City for traditional policing. Regional Dispatch – I give credit to all the City Managers Statewide Mandated Policies – Fair Impartial Policing – This policy is in the 3rd phase. I will be coming to you with the recommended policy that the working group has been working on for the past 14 months. There is given and take in these policies and you’re not going to love all the language. I don’t think you will ever get a diverse group of people in a room who are a 100% happy with the finish product. Internal Investigation Policies – It is slated to come out July 1. We have one now and we will compare. The Mayor asked if we wrapped up the JAG. Chief Hebert said the Director of Criminal Justice Training told him no agency in Vermont has been awarded JAG Money. It’s because the Dept. of Justice is waiting for the Fair & Impartial Policing Policy that they now feel is in compliance to go into effect March 1 with communities who have adopted that policy. The COPS position filed extension, which finished Dec. 31. We are starting our retention year as of January 1. This is a great responsible way to grow. This covers up to 50% of entry policing for 3 years. He explained how the COPS grant works. Community Justice Center Mr. Ferree said we are level funding and most of this money goes to salary and benefits. The one change is the Intergovernmental line, which is the Panel Managers position. He also said being part of the Community and helping with the Police Dept. We keep doing what we do with Community forums. The emerging issue is the future of DOC funding. It is a concern of mine. The DOC. solely funds the majority of the CJC in the state. The City Manager said this is one of the budgets that is the most difficult to do in this cycle when we traditionally do it in June. I think it is important to present them all together. It would be your discretion whether to hold off on this budget until later in the spring to consider it. It is our obligation to come to you with a plan to continue the program, whether it is a budget adjustment or identifying other funds and getting creative. Chief Hebert said the last part of this presentation is obviously the work of the Public Safety Commission meeting once a month and digging into all different kinds of issues in the City. We have a tremendous group of people now and we are finally fully staffed and engaged. Michelle McCutheon-Shore joined the commission about a year ago. I see a community who is evolving and is growing and bursting out the seams. I find it unfortunate that we haven’t been able to give them resources. I cannot believe what they do and what they’ve been given. We need to start investing more in the public safety of this community ad downtown keeps growing. We have fire trucks that are old and diminishing. We need to start planning to scale up to what we may need about all growth that we are talking about. January 16, 2018 Winooski City Council  Mr. Rosenberg said this is his fourth year in Public Safety. Despite extraordinary services that our Police/Fire Dept do, as the City Manager pointed out earlier; there is a change in the firehouse. It has gone from a Vt. Volunteer Fire Dept run by its members to something now that is a more professional dept. When we interviewed members of the fire dept. in the last couple of years some of the old time members were most proud of was, turning back money every year to the taxpayers so it wouldn’t have been a burden on the fire dept. Each truck was getting older and older and there was no reserve setup to deal what we face now. It’s very important to us on the commission to be looking forward not looking away, what can we afford. The Police side, this is not a level service budget at all. By pulling people back, we are not getting this service. This is not really a level service budget it’s a budget where people are being pulled back from important thing that are good for the staffing perspective and the relationship with other Police Depts. in order to give us the patrol service that we don’t actually have enough patrol to give us. We need to keep that in mind and we need to be thinking about how we are going to add a couple more in a couple years. I urge you to continue moving forward to get a COPS grant. The Mayor said it is helpful to hear that people are passionate in specific areas of service and taken the time to be into the details of it and you understand what is going on in the area. e. Approval: Chittenden County Public Safety Authority: Union Municipal District Agreement and Resolution The City Manager said the joint survey committee recommends the adoption of a resolution and agreement to form a Union Municipal District to be known as the Chittenden County Public Safety Authority and the placement of the question on the ballot for Town Meeting Day. To move forward, the Council needs to approve the Agreement for recommendation to the voter and the resolution in advance of a Town Meeting Day ballot question. See attached. MOTION by Councilor Covey seconded by Councilor Corrigan to approve the Resolution and Agreement to form a Union Municipal District to be known as the Chittenden County Public Safety Authority as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. f. Approval: 21C Grant Application with the Winooski School District Mr. Coffey said in 2013 the City Partnered with the Winooski School District to support WSD’s successful application for a five-year grant through the State’s 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant program. Our partnership over these past five years has enabled the City to provide improved quality out-of- school programming through Thrive, a strengthened Homework Help program and extended hours/staffing at the Winooski Memorial Library, several youth sports programs through the Recreation Department, and a comprehensive job-skill training program for our Summer Teen Employment Program participants. This proposed application includes further improvements in the collaboration between the City’s Thrive and School’s 21C programing, and continuation for the successful City initiatives referenced above. MOTION by Councilor Mace seconded by Councilor Sweeney to approve the Memorandum of Agreement as presented, authorizing the City Manager to execute as presented. Voted and passed 4-0. g. Discussion: Treasurer Discussion The Mayor said this is a follow up to our initial conversation back in August. Councilor Mace and I have met and these are the results and recommendations. He gave an overview of the Current Status. The Treasurer position, as it is currently configured, was created three years ago to create an independent position that reports directly to City Council on financial operations. The Council has appointed the Treasurer position for the past three years without a review of the position. The Mayor and Councilor Mace came up with the following recommendations: Reviewing Charter Roles and Responsibilities for the Position Review current Treasurer Tasks Analyze how the position, as currently configured January 16, 2018 Winooski City Council  Provide a recommendation of potential updates to the position description and review the current Discuss appointment process The Mayor also said the original position description asked the position to do a number of duties not specifically spelled out in the charter. Tonight, we are requesting Council to authorize the creation of a draft Treasurer Position that is largely limited to the duties explicitly spelled out in the charter. We are also requesting permission to work with City’s attorneys on drafting language that will ensure the position is regularly opened, similar to commission or board seats ( and similar to Treasurer seats in towns where it is an elected position).The Council authorizes the draft treasurer position. Councilor Mace feels comfortable scaling the position back for checks and balances. The Mayor asked if there was any concerns about this from the Council. Councilor Covey said this sounds very logical to him. Councilor Sweeney’s concern is with staff. Is this able to be absorbed without any budgetary implications for staff. I think we should do this. The Mayor we would find some savings in this and we are actually thinking about a couple different financial models. The City Manager said those functions we need to maintain not only checks and balances at the Treasurer’s level but checks and balances at the internal level as well. How we build up that fiancé team capacity while not sacrificing the integrity of the people who are collecting the money at the front end. The Admin. Team and the Finance team still needs to be separate is the reason we were proposing the accounting clerk position. She also said by creating the Accounting Clerk position this would free up Angela to do higher-level policy thinking. We need her expertise at a much higher level and somebody to support her doing her operational task. With those two positions, we can manage it. h. Discussion: Job Description: Accounting Clerk The City Manager said the accounting clerk position is proposed in the FY2019 budget for 12 hours per week. This position would assist existing financial staff with data entry and routine financial tasks to free up time for work on larger and more complex financial analysis and management needs moving forward. This position would be separate from other administrative staff who work in the Clerk’s Office to maintain a segregation of duties and good internal controls. She said we have piloted this concept this year with an intern and working 12 hours a week and has worked very well. The task that we will give this person happens periodically through the year. MOTION by Councilor Sweeney seconded by Councilor Corrigan to adjourn City Council meeting at 9:05 p.m. Voted and passed 4-0. ATTEST:________________________ City Clerk January 16, 2018 Winooski City Council